


When the Stars Fall Up

by Nyxelestia



Series: Abandoned or Hiatus [3]
Category: Thor (2011)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-30
Updated: 2012-08-27
Packaged: 2017-11-08 21:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/447514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyxelestia/pseuds/Nyxelestia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[This work has been discontinued/abandoned.]</p><p>Loki is not so foolish as to let his pride get in the way of his plans. And Thor learns there is a lot more to being a king than being brave.</p><p>Based on this avengerkink prompt:</p><p>
  <i>In Thor that scene where Thor and Jane cook for a hung over Erik was just so adorably domestic I kind of didn't want it to end. So what would have happened if Sif and the W3 never informed Thor of Loki's deceptions? If Loki never sent the Destroyer and Thor accepted his exile like he was starting to in that scene? I mean SHIELD is still interested in him, they know he is capable of making the best trained agents in the world look like mall cops and there is Jane's research. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pride and Plotting

**Author's Note:**

> The original prompt for this fic can be found here:
> 
> http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/6565.html?thread=11316645#t11316645

Loki couldn’t help but appreciate the rush of power as Thor’s friends put their fists over their hearts and kneeled before him. His spine the straight posture of a king, head upright, he looked down on Asgard’s greatest warriors in spiteful vengeance, a dark pride he hid behind the most neutral veneer he could muster.

Sif and the Warriors Three, who’d made so much of his childhood a misery to bear, who’d mocked him for all these years, who’d laughed at his pains and torments and turned their backs on him every time he needed them, no matter how many time he’d helped them, their care and loyalty extending only as far as Thor’s love for Loki.

A love which was now a lie.

Loki relished in this, and for a moment, imagined all of Asgard filling the grand hall, kneeling before him and cheering for him as they had done not too long before for Thor.

 _How does it feel, now? To be at _my_ mercy?_ he wanted to ask.

Instead, he took one last look, carefully took in every sensation of this moment to tide him through his future plans, shut his eyes as if in nervousness - then slumped, his kingly posture escaping him as he stood.

“Stop it, stop it, get up,” he said, perfectly hiding how he hated to say that. Descending the steps as they hesitantly looked up at him, he gestured with his hands for them to get up, letting Gungnir tremble in his grasp as he thought of his fight with Father - with the All-Father - to add some genuine insecurity to his eyes. “This is too strange.”

“Too strange?” Volstagg asked in surprise when he and Loki both stood on the floor.

“I’m not a king and we all know it.”

The warriors all looked hesitantly at each other.

“With your brother and father gone, Loki,” Hogun said, clearly at the beginning of something which he did not know the end of.

Sif cut him off with, “At least you recognize that, Loki Liesmith.”

The Warriors Three all looked between Sif and Loki nervously, and Loki pursed his lips.

“I’m not the real king,” Loki said tersely, his knuckles going white around his father’s staff. “But I won’t stand for those kinds of names, either, now that I can help it.”

Sif’s face hardened, but the Warriors Three seemed relieved that Loki was ready to end it there.

“We come to ask you to bring back Thor,” Fandral said. “Now that you are king-”

“I can end his exile and bring him back to Asgard, I know,” Loki said, then gave a large sigh - just weary enough, but not too dramatic. “I want to, very much so. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.”

“Oh?” Sif said, and Loki spared a moment to be impressed at the amount of accusation implied with her voice alone.

“Two problems,” Loki said. “First is that my father was the one to exile him. Odinsleep or not, he still-” He paused and clenched his jaw, as if humiliated. Loki Silvertongue was having trouble coming up with the words to describe what he needed to say, and he _hated_ it. As soon as he was sure that the idea had crossed at least half their minds, he continued. “I am not in the best position to be reversing _Odin All-Father’s_ final edict, one enacted on his own son. The people need continuity. Not only did they have to deal with a sudden banishment of their beloved prince instead of his coronation, but for the current king to fall into Odinsleep so soon after? And the new one to suddenly undo his last act? It’s too much at once.”

“So you’ll leave your brother on Midgard for the people’s...’sake’?” Volstagg asked.

Another weary sigh. Loki got the feeling he was going to be giving out a lot of these over the next few weeks. “If that were the only problem, I would risk it.”

“You said there were two problems,” Hogun said simply.

“All-Father was scheduled to go to Jontunheim, soon,” Loki said. “Now that he’s fallen into Odinsleep...”

“...that duty falls to you,” Sif finished, voice perfectly neutral.

Loki nodded. “And they will have heard of his exile by now. The balance between Jotunheim and Asgard is tense enough as it is. To bring him back from exile will only strain things further - especially because I have reason to believe that any treaty they are willing to agree to will be conditional on Thor’s exile - and right now, maintaining peace with Jontunheim takes priority. It would be cruel of me to bring back my brother in the face of my father’s final edict only to have to exile him _again_ scant days later.”

“So _that_ is why you will leave him on Midgard?!” Sif cried out. “For peace with Jotunheim?” The derision in her voice roused a simmering fury deep within Loki, but he reigned it in.

“Yes,” Loki said stiffly, his voice as cool as his true heritage. “Forgive me for wanting to minimize my brother’s trials as much as I can without causing everyone else undue strife.”

“Some brother you make,” Sif sneered.

“Lady Sif!” Loki said sharply, drawing up to his full height, and straightening Gungnir in his grasp. This was _not_ part of his plan, not at all, but even he could only resist his rage for so long before he snapped. “I am willing to tolerate a lot from you, as prince and king - but don’t you _dare_ call into doubt the love and care I hold for my family!”

He slowly moved up to her, into her space. She didn’t back down, but neither to Loki stop, until the horns on his helmet were nearly touching her forehead, and he could feel her breath on his cheeks.

“Is that clear?” he asked lowly, flushing away all his insecurities and letting his royal Aesir raising shine in his eyes.

Sif glared at him, but slowly nodded. “It is,” she said curtly. Loki doubted she meant it, but didn’t press the issue any further.

He turned sharply away and stepped back in the general direction of the throne, standing on the first step but going no further. One step towards the throne in the minds of these warriors, whether they realized it or not. He wasn’t king in their eyes _yet_ \- but maybe he could be.

“I am sorry,” Loki said. “Truly - I would love nothing more, right now, than to have my brother back here to take this-” A brief shake of Gungnir. “-off my hands. Things are too complicated - yes, even for me. I am not willing to chance my unconventional skills and tactics right now when the stakes include a needless war.”

“Needless war?” Sif asked, as if the very idea were foreign to her. To be fair, it probably was, in her relatively simple warrior’s mind. “Let us go to war! Glory is never needless!”

“No!” Loki snapped. “You are Asgard’s mightiest warriors, but not her only ones, and I am not sacrificing our brave warriors’ lives for the sake of my brother’s pride, and tarnishing his honor and mine with such childish ploys. We were nearly slaughtered when we went to Jotunheim, and returning with an army won’t change that.”

When none of them could come up with a reasonable answer, Loki turned sharply on his heel and ventured out of the hall.

“Heimdall,” Loki said clearly as soon as he was several twists and turns away. “I’m going down to Midgard to see my brother. I’ll be making my own way there, though - I don’t wish to call attention to myself, down there.”

Heimdall would see him, anyway, but right now, Loki knew that every little step pulling Heimdall to his side counted.

Loki was standing amidst a golden opportunity, one lined with the finest gems in all the Nine Realms. He wasn’t about to mess it up for the sake of his pride.

That was Thor’s prerogative - not his.

~*~

Thor sighed as the agent left, and looked down at his feet, clad in the strange shoes of this world, still unable to accept that Mjolnir had rejected him.

She’d heard him, and even the humans saw her react to him. He could still feel her just a little ways away, he could still hear her song in the depths of his soul, and yet he could not reach _her_ depths or touch _her_ soul.

If he couldn’t wield Mjolnir...what was he to do?

He looked up, only to blink in surprise at what he saw.

“Loki?” he asked.

Loki smiled at little sadly at him. “How are you doing, brother?”

“Not well,” Thor said. “Mjolnir - I...”

“I saw,” Loki said. “And I’m sorry.”

Thor wanted to ask if Loki knew how to fix it, but he recognized their father’s spellwork. Even if Loki _could_ undo it - which was really unlikely - Thor wouldn’t ask his brother to go against their father, not on something as serious as this.

“How is everyone?” Thor asked instead.

Loki paused for a moment, and Thor nearly jumped up in alarm at his brother’s uncharacteristic hesitance.

“Father sleeps,” Loki said. “The Odinsleep.”

Thor’s eyes widened, panic causing his now-human heart to pound faster than Sleipnir’s hoofbeats. “He...but then...”

“I am acting as king until either he wakes up again, or you can lift Mjolnir,” Loki said calmly, and yet again, Thor felt a wave of relief.

“At least Asgard lies in good hands, then,” Thor said sincerely. Then frowned. “If you are king...”

“I want to bring you back, Thor,” Loki said earnestly. "But I can't."

“Why not?” Thor asked. What could possibly prevent Thor’s return, such that even Loki could not find a way around it?

“Besides how inappropriate it would be, right now, to undo father’s last edict in such circumstances,” Loki said, and Thor winced. Right - Father had been the one to send them here, and he could easily understand why Loki wouldn’t want to go against his last wishes. “I am going to Jotunheim, soon.”

Thor frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Father sent you here as a punishment for your rash actions there as well to learn a lesson,” Loki said. “It will scream of a most...ingracious attitude towards them.”

“Ingracious?” Thor asked incredulously.

“Laufey did not have to spare us when the All-Father came to our aid,” Loki said. “He did, anyway. We can’t repay that with a war, especially not now.”

Thor swallowed, then sighed. “I know,” he admitted. “I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I,” Loki said. “But I fear that in this case, loopholes and clever words would be of little use to us.” Another pause. “The restrictions would only be against nullifying the geass. Once you can lift Mjolnir and come back to Asgard, you will be king, but not until then.”

Thor knew it was silly to really expect anything else. At least his brother would maintain Asgard until Thor returned, or Father.

Loki looked down at his feet for a moment, going still for a moment's thought, before looking up at Thor. “I probably wouldn’t be able to lift Father’s spellwork, anyway. I’ve thought about looking into it, but...”

Thor smiled reassuringly at his brother. “I wouldn’t expect you to be able to lift his spellwork,” Thor promised - he didn't want to set up his brother got the kind of spectacular failure that would be. “It would be a folly to expect such things of you, and would only lead to dismay for the both of us.” Loki relief and gratitude spread across Loki's countenance. “Thank you for the sentiment, though.”

Loki smiled at him, something soft and reserved just for the two of them.

“I must go,” Loki said regretfully.

“Will you come back?” Thor asked. He was all alone here, and without Loki here to explain this strange world to him as they travelled through it, Thor couldn’t help the stab of fear that spread through his heart, twisting the knife of terror that Mjolnir had struck into him when she cast his grip aside.

“I’ll try,” Loki said, still regretful, and Thor sighed with pained understanding.

“I understand,” Thor promised. Odin had been a busy king at the best of times. And right now certainly wasn’t the best of times. “Thank you for coming and speaking to me.”

“Goodbye, brother,” Loki said.

And then vanished before Thor could get a word in.

“Goodbye,” he murmured to the empty ether, just as the door to his glass dungeon opened again.

“Goodbye?” the man said. “We’re just getting started.”

~*~

“King Loki,” Heimdall greeted coolly when Loki arrived at the Bifrost after his little trip to Midgard.

“Heimdall,” Loki said, nodding with respect due to a man many eons his elder, no matter their rank. He doubted he could truly trick, bribe, or flatter Heimdall into supporting him - but no matter his suspicions, Heimdall wouldn’t act against Loki unless driven to an extreme, one which Loki had no intention of pushing him to.

Let the Gatekeeper think Loki was just a child quivering in his father’s throne, a new king whose arrogance would be worn away with time spent ruling.

“How fares Jotunheim?” Loki asked, pulling the helmet off his head. “Any news?”

“None,” Heimdall said courteously. “Laufey is currently handling day-to-day matters of his people.” A pause. “But he has heard of Thor’s exile. He and his people delighted in it.”

“I expected as much,” Loki said neutrally. “But one can always hope.”

He took a long, considering look at the gate - at his future weapon - then said, “No one is to use the Bifrost to get to Jotunheim. In fact - let no one but the diplomats and traders through it at all.”

Heimdall nodded. “As you command,” he said. Loki wanted to stop and analyze his words, see if Heimdall meant it with any sincerity, but now was not the time.

Loki turned around and started a long trek back to the main city, already planning his next few moves. He turned back to bid Heimdall a courteous farewell.

As he did, he glimpsed Heimdall glancing at his arm.

Had it been anyone else, Loki might’ve dismissed it, and had Loki been anyone else, he wouldn’t have noticed. But this was the Gatekeeper, He Who Sees All, versus Loki Liesmith, Loki Silvertongue - and he of all people knew how difficult it was to trick a trickster.

He paused for a few moments of consideration, turning his body slowly so no matter his next move, it looked natural.

Well, Heimdall was so highly suspicious of him - let him know a little of Loki’s vulnerable side. Maybe he’ll feel less threatened, more powerful in the circumstances as they stood.

“How long have you known?” Loki asked, raising his arm that Heimdall had likely seen turn blue while in the land of the Frost Giants. It’s entirely possible the Gatekeeper witnessed his entire fight with his father, come to think of it.

“Since Odin first brought you back from Jotunheim,” Heimdall said. “And introduced you even to me as Loki Odinson.”

_Odinson_

“Well I’m not an Odinson, now am I?” Loki snapped. It was irrational to have expected Heimdall to have told him before Odin wished it - as the saying went, the day Heimdall loosened his lips was the day Asgard fell. And yet it stung, that this distant Gatekeeper had known this truth before him.

“Yes, you are,” Heimdall said, as if it were just another fact to be reported.

 _Liar_ , Loki wanted to say.

He didn’t. Instead, he said, “I’m going to be testing some concealment spells later today. Please remember and let me know if anything hides me from you?”

“You wish to hide from me?” Heimdall asked.

“I wish to be _able_ to hide from you,” Loki said bluntly. “If I can hide from you, I can hide from anybody. Hopefully, anyway. I wish to have that ability before I venture to Jotunheim. I highly doubt their intentions but I have no wish to start a war like Thor did.”

Heimdall looked at Loki with those simmering gold eyes, but thankfully didn’t say anything.

This time, when Loki turned and walked away, he kept going without looking back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the Loki-heavy intro! I promise it’ll focus on Thor a bit more after this.


	2. Plans and Arguing

“You think will be safe when you go to Jotunheim?” Frigga said. “You are going alone!”

“I have assurances-”

“Assurances mean nothing if they wish to kill you,” she said worriedly.

“They’re monsters, mother, of course they _want_ to kill me,” Loki said.

She sighed, and stood to round the bed and come stand behind him. The staff and helmet sat on a table in the corner, and so she had no barrier when she reached forward to run her fingers through his hair. No barrier, but the flinch of his shoulders when she touched him might as well have been one.

“They have the desire to avenge those they’ve lost, just like we do,” she said. “That is not so monstrous a desire. But it is a dangerous one when you are the one they wish vengeance upon.”

Loki sighed. “I do not want to approach with an army. I mean to make peace, bargains-”

“At least take a small entourage,” she said. “One of the warriors and a few guards - they could at least give you enough time to run away to somewhere Heimdall can retrieve you with the Bifrost if needs be.”

“Needs won’t be,” Loki said. It clearly has been far too long since she has been to Jotunheim, because there is no way that kind of small entourage would have been able to protect him should something go amiss.

But it didn’t matter any more. He could use this to his advantage.

When he donned his helmet again and took up his father’s staff, Loki went to the training grounds where Thor’s friends are laughing in a mock-battle, along with nearly a dozen other warriors and a few guards as well.

He didn’t try to make his presence immediately known. Instead, he pondered his choices during the few moments it took them to notice him, trying to decide who best to take with him.

When all the Warriors noticed him, they stopped and tried to put a fist over their hearts, but Loki was already gesturing the Warriors Three and Sif over to him. Well, really just one of them if they asked him, but he knew all of them would come, like sheep after their herd. He barely looked at them as he encouraged to the rest of the training warriors to continue with a benign, “No need to stop on my account, not right now.”

The four approached warily.

“As you know, I will be paying a diplomatic visit with the Frost Giants soon enough,” Loki said.

They all nodded warily. “What do you need from us?” Sif asks.

“My mother has asked me to take a small entourage,” Loki said. “For protection, should the Frost Giants be plotting instead of willing to bargain.”

“You wish us to come?” Volstagg asked dubiously.

“Not all of you, just one,” Loki said. “Anything else and it will look like a repeat of our last visit there.”

He turned, instead, to Hogun.

“You,” he said. “Have the most patience of all four of you, the best warriors of Asgard. Will you accompany me to Jotunheim, and lead a few guards as well in my protection detail?”

While all of them looked surprised, Loki went on. “I don’t expect anything to go wrong, but just in case, I trust you to react with the most...awareness of our situation, and react most accordingly.”

“What are you accusing the rest of us of?” Sif demanded.

“You see a slight where there is none, Lady Sif,” Loki said, turning his most benign smile on her. “You and Fandral are excellent warriors, the pride of Asgard - but pride is best left at home during such diplomatic endeavors. And Volstagg! Wise is the man who prefers merriment to malice, but with the amount of tension we will be walking into, every word counts, and as much as I appreciate your disposition, your lips are prone to loosening at the most awkward of moments.”

While the others simmered, he turned to Hogun. “So, will you accompany me?”

He phrased it as a question. It wasn’t one.

“Of course...my king,” Hogun said carefully.

Loki smiled. “Good! Once I have more details, you will be alerted to plan accordingly.”

Without another word, he turned to head back into the palace.

His smile turned into a smirk the moment he was alone.

His little turns of phrase and selection for guard duty weren’t enough to turn such old friends against each other.

But they would be soon enough.

~*~

“Start as gently as you can,” Jane said as she cleaned up the two eggs Thor had utterly smashed from the counter. “Against the edge of the bowl, and work your way up. You don’t want to break it or smash it, just crack it enough so that you can pull the egg open once it’s _over_ the bowl.”

Thor did, trying to apply as little pressure to the egg as possible, which of course didn’t crack it. Just a little more than that, though, caused a faint line to spread across the egg, and he looked to Jane, who gave him an encouraging smile.

“Just one more,” she said.

Thor did, and a web of cracks spread across the egg, but the egg did not actually break. Thor looked up at Jane with a hesitant smile, which grew into a more confident one as she nodded in approval, moving on to show him the next step.

He got the mixture of eggs splattered all over Lady Jane’s kitchen, but she seemed more amused by it than anything else, taking the bowl to the pan over the cooking fire and handing him a damp rag. “Just try to clean everything up from the counter...and the cupboards. I can take care of the rest.”

Thor smiled at her, and his chest warmed when she returned the sentiment, and he looked away to his mess, and the rag in his hands.

The Prince of Asgard should not be reduced to the duties of kitchen maids.

But he was the Prince of Asgard no more. And besides, the sharing of duties seemed to be the custom, here.

The steady, circular motion she had showed him was not so bad. It was soothing, even, in its own manner, and he found himself almost lost to the task when Eric stumbled in, looking haggard and worn.

Frowning in concern, Thor asked, “Are you well?”

“I will be, I will be...” the man mumbled miserably, waving him off as he slumped into a chair at the table.

A moment later, Darcy came in, smirking at Eric. “You shouldn’t drink so much at your age.”

The elder man groaned and she laughed and turned to Thor. “Get him some water, I’ll get him something to help with the hangover.”

Thor looked to Jane, who pointed to one of the cupboards without looking up from the cooking eggs. He found some glasses and filled them with water from the tap Jane had down him earlier, setting down one at each place at the table.

Darcy came back in and handed a small white tablet to Eric saying, “Here.”

“Thanks,” the man mumbled as she took her seat next to him.

“Thor,” Jane said, jerking her head to the four plates with toasted slices of bread on them. He picked up the first two and held them out for her to fill, and at her nod, he set them down in front of Darcy and Eric.

“Thanks,” Darcy said, with a strange look on her face that Thor decided he wouldn’t be able to decipher.

Thor smiled at her anyway before turning back and holding out the last two plates for Jane to fill with eggs - one with almost three times as much as the rest of the plates had contained.

Thor felt almost sheepish, especially when he’d see how little food Jane had with her here, and he wondered if Volstagg ever felt this way. Probably not, though - it wasn’t as if he had ever wanted for food, or known anyone in Asgard who did.

He set down the last two plates and took his seat, and had already taken several bites of eggs before he noticed that Jane was still cleaning.

“Jane, please come dine with us,” Thor said.

“You can do the dishes after,” Darcy called out.

Jane paused for a moment in her routine, looked down at the pan in the washing basin, before sighing and nodding, setting it down and joining them at the table.

For a few moments, there was nothing but silence as he and Darcy dug into their food with much gusto, though Jane and Eric were a little more sedate in their appetite.

But then Darcy spoke, saying, “So, what did you two get up to last night?”

She was looking at Eric and Thor, but it was Jane who answered.

“They drank, they fought, and they made Eric’s ancestors proud,” she said, with an amused smile.

“Uh, your ancestors...?” Darcy asked in confusion to Eric.

The man rolled his eyes. “It’s an expression.”

Thor wondered what the confusion was, but before he could ask, Darcy asked Jane, “Any plans for today?”

Jane mournfully shook her head. “Just...want to get my research back somehow.”

Guiltily, Thor reached out and took her hands in his. “I am so sorry about your stolen work.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Well, actually,” Darcy began.

Thor felt Jane’s foot brush against his leg, and a moment later Darcy yelped and reached down to rub her own.

“Maybe I can sue them,” Jane said. “I mean, they just - even if they paid for it, a lot of that can’t be replaced and-”

“Not likely,” Eric said. “Jane - you don’t want to mess with these people. They have a _lot_ of power. And they work in global security, too - constitutional rights go right out the window when dealing with these guys, and much of the time, so does due process. Or anything approaching legality - they may just decide to make you vanish if they think it’s necessary.”

Darcy’s face reflected the alarm Thor felt at the thought.

“So?” Jane snapped, apparently unperturbed by potential vanquishment. “I have to _try_. I can’t just give up!”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Thor asked.

All three of them sighed, and Eric shook his head. “No, but mostly because there isn’t a whole lot that any of us can do about this,” Eric said.

“Well,” Darcy said. “There is a third door. Well, second.”

Eric groaned, but Jane said, “I’d love to hear it, Darcy.”

“What if instead of trying to bring the research back to you, we focus on bringing you back to the research?” Darcy asked.

“...is that not what Lady Jane was trying to achieve?” Thor asked in confusion.

“No,” Darcy said. “I mean - what if you go work for them? You said that there are almost no people who know this stuff, understand it like you do, and you’re the only ones that understand everything, right? Or at least, understand it easily?”

Jane slowly nodded.

“So,” Darcy said, looking between Jane and Eric. “What if we focus on convincing them that they _need_ you two?”

“That might work,” Jane said, nodding hopefully, before looking at Eric.

The man sighed regretfully. “They will or they won’t, Jane, but like I said - powerful people, they are not to be trifled with.”

“Too bad,” Jane snapped.

~*~

Darcy and Thor finished cleaning the kitchen utensils together, with Darcy showing Thor how to clean each one with what Thor hoped was reasonable skill. 

“Thank you, Lady Darcy,” Thor said as they put the dishes away.

“No prob,” she said, before looping her arm through his and pressing her hand over his and leading him towards the open area where Jane’s research had originally been housed. On a large, white tablet of some kind were written a multitude of equations interspersed with intricate looking diagrams of some kind.

“What’s all this?” Darcy ask, letting go of Thor to look critically at the shining surface full of...Thor didn’t even know what they were, beyond ‘equations’.

“Some of the basic elements of the research,” Jane said, looking between the board and the journal Thor had taken for her. “Just the simple parts, enough to get a good dialogue going if I talk to whatever researchers and scientists they brought to look at all this.”

“...simple?” Thor asked a little incredulously as he looked at all the strange sigils he couldn’t recognize interspersed with words and numbers he could, too far apart and lacking legible context for Thor to make heads or tails of. “I fear even my brother would not understand this!”

“Does your brother know astrophysics?” Darcy asked, looking at Thor over her shoulder.

“Er...” Thor thought. “I believe so?”

“Well unless he can come here himself, it doesn’t matter either way,” Eric said.

“Can he?” Darcy asked Thor.

Thor shook his head. “My father is in Odinsleep, and so long as I am trapped down here on Midgard, my brother must rule Asgard as king in my stead.”

Darcy raised an eyebrow, in another expression Thor couldn’t decipher.

“Not this again,” he heard Jane mutter, and Thor frowned.

“Is my story really so unbelievable?” he asked her.

“Yes,” Eric said simply, turning to face him. “The stories are called myths for a reason: they’re mythical. They’re not real, just tales made by our ancestors centuries ago to explain what they couldn’t yet understand and have something to share over a warm fire on a cold night. Nothing more.”

Thor stood taller in the face of the man’s insult. “How dare you call my people-”

“How dare _you_ try to claim to be a prince of gods?”

“I am not a prince of _gods_ , I am a prince of _Asgardians_ ,” Thor said proudly.

“Well by your accounts, you aren’t one now, are you?” Jane said.

Thor could feel his face heat in rage and shame, but he was an Odinsson, and the House of Odin did not back down.

“That I do not hold that rank now does not mean I am not the true heir to the throne of Asgard,” Thor said. “My people-”

“Your myths-”

“Do not blame me for your ancestors being in such awe of my race as to name them gods when they came here before!”

“ _Guys!_ ”

Thor and Eric both turned at Darcy’s sharp cry. She stood with her hands held up to both of them in an attempt at peaceful gesture, while behind her Jane looked between the two men in bewilderment.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions, m’kay?” Darcy said. “Fighting about this isn’t going to help us at all. It’s not like whether Thor is a crazy homeless person or an alien prince really affects us right now, so how about we give him the benefit of the doubt and focus on the things we can control and do something about?”

Thor wondered whether Darcy believed him, or if she was just humoring him.

Eric nodded at her and turned back to the board of equations, and after a moment, so did Jane, and thus Thor decided not to ask Darcy about it.

Instead, he quietly took a few steps back to lean against an empty table as Jane and Eric talked about whatever it was they had written. Darcy looked at the two scholars for a few more moments, before turning to Thor.

“So...how about you tell me what happened last night? At the little Area 51 out there and with Eric afterwards?”

“Area 51?” he asked in confusion.

“It’s a super secret government facility thing way out in Nevada,” Darcy said, waving her hand vaguely northwards. “Really really secret, no one really knows what goes on there for sure. Officially, they just test new planes and guns and stuff there, but a lot of people are convinced they’re actually like this place where they mess with alien technology, or other ‘classified’ stuff that _isn’t_ planes and guns, like really advanced weapons they can’t let the public know about at all.”

“Hm,” Thor said. “I wonder if perhaps others of my realm have come in contact with them? Or perhaps those of the other realms?”

Darcy shrugged. “Who knows. But, seriously, yesterday? Details, I want them.”

Thor nodded and started regaling her with ‘details’. He told her of his charge into the paper fortress, of defeating every guard he came upon, and the tragedy of him being unable to lift Mjolnir. He spoke of his confinement, and of Eric and Jane’s rescue.

As he began to tell of Eric throwing his glass to the ground in the tavern - “What, seriously? Dr. Selvig did that?” - Thor noticed something outside.

And when he realized what it was, he felt foolish for missing it. Was it because of his mortal body?

“My friends, Eric, look,” Thor said, gesturing outside, to a nearby roof.

As they all turned to look at the two men perched on a roof across the road, their watchers ducked under an edge - leaving some strange devices on top the ledge, which reminded Thor of glass eyes.

“Are they...are they _tailing_ us?!” Jane asked. “Those bastards! They take away our research and now our privacy? They can’t do that!”

“Yes, they can,” Eric said with a sigh. “I already told you...”

He trailed off as Jane stormed out of the room and towards the opposite building.

“Hey, you!” they heard Jane shout. “Men in Black, I know you’re up there!”

“...she’s got _balls_ ,” Darcy said.

“Balls?” Thor asked in confusion.

“Testicles,” Darcy said, and Thor stared at Jane in even more confusion, before Darcy helpfully added, “I mean she’s brave. Maybe stupidly brave, but still brave. It’s a colloquialism.”

Thor looked back, just in time to see Jane, such a tiny woman, standing in front of the the empty-looking building while shouting at the men on the top, demanding they call their superiors.

“That she is,” Thor said.

The two men came down and spoke to Jane, and after a few moments she came back in and grabbed a ring of keys. “Forget the whiteboard, let’s just go.”

Thor warily approached the van, making sure it was completely stationary before he approached it. Once inside, Jane looked out the window one more time at the men in front of her home - who were now speaking into strange little devices in their hands - before she directed their transportation away.

“So, Area 51?” Darcy asked.

“Yup,” Jane said, and Thor saw her face in the small mirrors inside and outside of the windows, and felt fear for whoever would be awaiting her - most likely the Son of Coul - when they reached the paper fortress.

~*~

“Miss Foster-” 

“ _Doctor_ Foster!” Jane said. “I’m not just some amateur taking pretty pictures of the sky and spouting off about UFOs, I’m the world’s leading expert on the very things you are studying. No one has done more research into the Einstein-Rosen bridge than us!”

“Be that as it may,” said the Son of Coul - no, Coulson, Darcy said Coulson. “You do not have the security clearance to be assisting us. I am truly sorry-”

“No you’re not!” Jane said.

“Uh, Jane?” Darcy asked, gently tugging on Jane’s elbow and stepping forward. Jane, face red with rage, stepped back and crossed her arms, glaring at the bland man obstructing her.

Thor gave Darcy an encouraging smile and she nodded once before looking back to the ‘Agent’ before them.

“Look, we’re not asking that you tell her what you need this research for or even why you’re seizing it,” Darcy said. “Really, we just want to keep studying the wormhole like we were before. What actually happens with the research is totally your problem. They’re not even asking for a payraise or anything-”

“ _They_ aren’t asking?” the man asked, raising an eyebrow without the rest of his expression changing at all. Thor was reminded inexplicably of Loki during diplomatic encounters with the elves.

“I wasn’t really getting paid to begin with, just a living stipend,” Darcy said. “All I get out of this is college credit.”

“Mm hmm...” the man shook his head, and gestured to Thor. “And him?”

“What of me?” Thor asked in confusion and latent shame.

“Last night you tore through my security like a wet paper bag,” the agent said, and Thor tried to decipher what that meant, but the other man was already speaking again. “And now you’re here, making demands.”

“You have stolen the lady’s work!” Thor said in outrage.

“Doctor’s work,” Lady Jane - Doctor Jane? - muttered.

Before Thor could correct himself, Coulson said, “Be that as it may, your ease of security breach makes you too high of a risk.”

“Are you blaming me for the flaws of your guardsmen?” Thor asked incredulously.

“What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger!” Darcy cried out.

Everyone turned their heads to look at her, the Son of Coul incredulously.

“Look, Thor - he’s having problems right now, but he just wanted to get his hammer back, even he wasn’t interested in getting your guys’ secrets or anything,” Darcy said. “Your security sucked against him? Let him train them! If he really went through it as easily as you said, then maybe you can-”

“I’m not going to let my security agents be trained by a security threat!” the man said. Thor tried not to show his rage at being referred to as some kind of dangerous animal, but even he could feel his face heating up in a way that had nothing to do with Midgard’s strong sun.

“Well, think of it this way, then,” Darcy said. “You’re tailing us. That means you’re interested in us for some reason. Wouldn’t that be easier to do if we’re here rather than miles and miles away?”

The man rubbed the bridge of his nose again, much like Loki often did when exasperated, and Thor felt a sharp spike of longing for his home yet again. For all the times he’d been away from home - sometimes for years on end - he had never been so lonely as he was now.

“I appreciate your attempts,” Coulson said, his strained voice implying otherwise, and Thor could see Jane’s face fall as she already realized what he was saying. “But the answer is still ‘no’.”

“You can’t be serious,” Jane said. “Look, just let me talk to whoever you have working on this, they’ll be able to tell you that I am the best person to work on this!”

“No,” the man said, and with a dismissive jerk of his head towards their watchers from the town, he turned away.

As Jane looked about ready to storm after them, Thor remembered why he was being watched in the first place.

“Agent Coulson!” Thor cried out.

“What?” Coulson snapped, turning around with a piercing glare.

Thor kept eye contact with the man, and reached deep inside himself for Mjolnir.

Within moments, there was the sound of ‘beeps’ and Midgardian equipment making strange noises coming from inside the paper fortress, whilst the people using them suddenly started shouting at each other and crying out in strange words Thor sometimes could and mostly couldn’t understand.

Even if it was only a rejection from Mjolnir, at least it was a response.

The Son of Coul turned sharply to look inside his paper fortress, before turning back to Thor with narrowed eyes.

“If this is really you,” he said. “Stop this.”

Thor nodded, and while it took much longer, the noises and shouts died down, replaced by what sounded to Thor like a general murmur of confusion.

Thor turned to see Eric, Jane, and Darcy all staring at him, wide-eyed, and Thor smiled at them proudly before turning to look back at Coulson.

“Even you cannot deny the bond between me and that which you so desperately seek to understand,” Thor said.

The man let out a deep breath through his nose, before he turned to look at the bevy of people behind him.

“Barton - get the two in charge of the field research team over here. Tell them I want to know if we really need Miss Foster-”

“ _Doctor_ Foster!” Jane hissed furiously under her breath.

“-to fully understand the depth of our current subject.”

“Yes, sir,” one of the men said, turning sharply on his heel and disappearing inside the paper fortress.

“The rest of you,” Coulson said to them over his shoulder. “Stay there. I’m calling my superiors.”

And with that, he followed Barton inside.

For a few moments, they were silent, standing awkwardly with the eyes of a dozen other agents on them, many armed with Midgardian weapons, and Thor tried to focus on his pride at achieving some advancement for Jane to try and drown out his anger at being so thusly rebuffed and demeaned by the agent.

He wasn’t the Price of Asgard, now, and he had to remember that.

“See, told ya the poli sci is useful,” Darcy finally said to Eric.

The man smiled fondly at her. “Yeah, who knows, maybe you can apply for SHIELD once you graduate.”

“You think?” Darcy asked with smug cheer.

“You are already well-armed,” Thor said, gesturing to the weapon currently in the hands of one of their guards, the one with which she so easily felled him when he first arrived here.

Eric laughed, and Jane rolled her eyes.

“Doctor Foster,” Thor added with a smile. “It is a pity you are scholar and not a warrior, for you have the heart of a mighty Valkyrie inside you.”

The last traces of Jane’s irritation fell away as she smiled at him. “Thank you.”

“Why can’t she be both?”

Thor turned to Darcy in confusion, who elaborated, “She can be a warrior and a scholar too.”

“No, I can’t,” Jane said. “I am not becoming some kind of doctorate ninja, Darcy.”

“Why not?” Darcy asked.

“Scholars and warriors are two different trades entirely,” Thor said.

“I’m just saying, it seems a warrior _should_ be scholarly if they want to be more than a slab of meat with a big stick,” Darcy muttered.

“Darcy,” Eric said warningly.

“Right, right, sorry,” Darcy said. Thor frowned as he wondered if he had just been insulted.

“I gotta ask, though,” Darcy said. “What happened to all that ‘Lady Jane’ stuff?”

“She seemed offended when referred to by anything else,” Thor said.

“It’s okay, you can keep calling me Lady Jane...among us,” Jane said, gesturing between the four of them. “If you’re talking about me with anyone else - or at least, anyone else in this place - it’s Doctor Foster.”

Thor wondered what the different titles meant down here on Midgard and why some caused offense and some didn’t, but before he could ask, the man Coulson had addressed as ‘Barton’ returned, with two white-robed agents behind him.

“That’s her,” the man said, pointing to Jane, who immediately stepped forward and started talking quickly with the two new scholars. Barton stood back, but didn’t leave, posture strong and tall as he crossed his arms and eyed them all warily.

“Let’s hope this works,” Darcy said, and she and Thor looked up just in time to see Agent Coulson appear from inside the paper fortress, snapping shut some small device and tucking it into his pocket.

“Well?” Darcy asked.

“I’ve heard from my superiors.”

“And?”

~*~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know, I’m evil. Sorry for the late update. Unfortunately, I started school today so the next one will probably take about as long. Hope you still enjoy it!
> 
> Please point out any mistakes you see, as this is still unbeta’d. Concrit is much loved and appreciated.


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